Twitter’s Biz Stone Gets Ready for New Role: Filmmaker

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone joined Canon's Project Imaginat10n partially for the opportunity to work with director Ron Howard.Photo: Getty

Get ready for a new title in tech culture circles: Biz Stone, director.

The Twitter co-founder — along with four other celebs, web and otherwise — is going to be working with director Ron Howard on a short film for Canon’s Project Imaginat10n initiative, which will solicit photos from the crowd and use them as inspiration for a series of short films.

For serial entrepreneur Stone, it’s a chance to do something he’s always wanted to do, but otherwise would probably never have gotten off the ground. (He’s better at funding startups than movies.)

“When [else] am I going to get a chance in my busy life to actually experience the act of directing a short film?” Stone said in a phone interview with Wired. “It’s just been handed to me and it’s a wonderful opportunity for the mentorship of Ron Howard.”

Stone and the other directors — Jamie Foxx, James Murphy, Eva Longoria and fashion designer Georgina Chapman, as well as five more to be announced later — will be partnered with professional filmmaking teams to complete their projects. “I get to have all the fun without all the technical and operational aspects,” Stone said.

The films will be inspired by photos submitted by shutterbugs from all over as part of Project Imaginat10n. (Photos can be submitted here.) The Canon project should produce some interesting results, with filmmakers coming from such diverse disciplines.

‘I still think of myself as an artist and maybe the way that I express myself now is by creating platforms for millions of others to express themselves…. This project allows me to get right in to the more traditional definition of the word.’

— Biz Stone

Submitted photos must adhere to 10 themes — setting, time, character, mood, backstory, relationship, goal, obstacle, the unknown and an unannounced 10th theme. Photographers began submitting photos on the first nine themes in mid-August, and submissions for the mystery category will begin once it’s announced Sept. 11.

After a panel of judges narrows the field to a batch of finalists, Howard and the public will pick 91 winners in mid-October. From there, the directors will select a photo on each theme to use as guides to create their short films. The films eventually will be shown at a Project Imaginat10n film festival next year.

“The concept behind Project Imaginat10n showcases the power still images can have on narrative storytelling, but more importantly, it demonstrates there are no limits with creativity, and sources of inspiration can come from anyone or anything,” Howard said in a statement. “I’m thrilled to work with this talented group of new directors … to help them on this creative journey.”

Stone, who notes that he was an artist before he became a technologist and an entrepreneur, said that even though Howard will be mentoring for the project, the Oscar winner told the directors that he “wasn’t going to do the work” for them, just help them along. The Twitter co-founder doesn’t yet know what kind of film he’s going to make — not because he doesn’t have any good ideas, but because he’s holding off until he sees the images that will inspire his film.

“Recently I decided I’m going to give myself over to this creative experiment and I’m going to wait until I pick 10 photos to see what I do,” Stone said.

Stone met with his fellow directors when they hung out with Howard to get the skinny on the project and brainstorm. And while the group includes musicians like LCD Soundsystem frontman Murphy and actresses like Longoria, both of whom have had more art-focused careers, Stone said he thinks his experience with Twitter and in the startup world — with its constant demands to fix bugs and solve problems — should prove valuable when trying to make a short film in just a few months.

“When you’re building software that millions of people use at the same time, you really have to be prepared in advance — I learned that lesson,” Stone said. “I still think of myself as an artist and maybe the way that I express myself now is by creating platforms for millions of others to express themselves…. This project allows me to get right in to the more traditional definition of the word.”

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